The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Former Blairgowrie shop owner Betty Bell, 89
Betty Bell, former joint proprietor of The Two Bells hardware shop in Blairgowrie, has died aged 89.
She ran the shop in the town with her husband Bruce from 1982 to their retiral in 2002.
Betty previously had a successful career in management at the United States military base at RAF Edzell.
She was born in Perth in 1932 to John Macfarlane, a painter and decorator, and his wife Sarah, a housewife.
After leaving school she began work in a shop before moving on to a sales position with a wholesaler in the city.
During the 1950s she met PE teacher Ronan Hutchison, and the couple married at St Ninian’s Cathedral in Perth in 1956.
The couple had three children: Sarah, Stephen and Frank.
Ronan was teaching in Perth but was offered a job at the private Rannoch School in Highland Perthshire.
The family spent several years living in a house near the school but Betty never took to the isolation so the family relocated to Rossie School, near Montrose, where Ronan started teaching.
In 1969 he died and Betty, who was 36 at the time, was left to bring up three children on her own.
She secured a temporary job at RAF Edzell, and was kept on full-time.
She went on to manage the base’s offices, navy exchange club, supermarket, shops and hairdresser.
In 1975, Betty married Bruce Bell and, seven years later they bought the Blairgowrie hardware shop and renamed it as The Two Bells.
They became a fixture in the town until their retiral in 2002.
The shop was taken on by John and Maureen Robb after their retiral and is now owned by Tony Douglas, who had been employed by Betty and Bruce under the Youth Training Scheme in 1985.
In retirement, Betty, who lived in Rattray, was a member of Blairgowrie Bowling Club and enjoyed socialising and walking.